| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: will, which marks the soul of the man. He who has crushed a nation sins no
more than he who rejoices in the death throe of the meanest creature. The
stagnant pool is not less poisonous drop for drop than the mighty swamp,
though its reach be smaller. He who has desired to be and accomplish what
this man has been and accomplished, is as this man; though he have lacked
the power to perform. Nay, remember this one thing more:--Certain sons of
God are born on earth, named by men Children of Genius. In early youth
each stands at the parting of the way and chooses; he bears his gift for
others or for himself. But forget this never, whatever his choice may be;
that there is laid on him a burden that is laid not on others--all space is
open to him, and his choice is infinite--and if he falls beneath it, let
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: fifty million whites have died in America from the beginning up to
to-day - make it sixty, if you want to; make it a hundred million -
it's no difference about a few millions one way or t'other. Well,
now, you can see, yourself, that when you come to spread a little
dab of people like that over these hundreds of billions of miles of
American territory here in heaven, it is like scattering a ten-cent
box of homoeopathic pills over the Great Sahara and expecting to
find them again. You can't expect us to amount to anything in
heaven, and we DON'T - now that is the simple fact, and we have got
to do the best we can with it. The learned men from other planets
and other systems come here and hang around a while, when they are
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: seemed to him to show the art of St. George's admired hand, and he
lost himself in gazing at the vision - this hovered there before
him - of a woman's figure which should be part of the glory of a
novel. But at the end of a moment the thing had turned into smoke,
and out of the smoke - the last puff of a big cigar - proceeded
the voice of General Fancourt, who had left the others and come and
planted himself before the gentlemen on the sofa. "I suppose that
when you fellows get talking you sit up half the night."
"Half the night? - jamais de la vie! I follow a hygiene" - and St.
George rose to his feet.
"I see - you're hothouse plants," laughed the General. "That's the
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